Social Question

What will future generations remember as our old shame?

I couldn’t think of a clear and concise way to say this. Today we look at the past and there’s a consensus about some things they really got wrong, which were a part of everyday life back then. (Like the food.) And there are plenty of silly things about today, where decades from now, they’ll look back and say what were they thinking?

Those answers are fine, but what I’m really interested in are the values of a society. Schools were segregated in the US until 1954, and it was unusual for women to work outside the home. Imagine that you’re looking back at 2014 from 2080 or so. What would seem wrong to you about this decade?

Great question. Of course, this is all just speculation, but it seems like we’re living through a pretty fast shift on views of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and transgender issues. We’ll likely have to explain to our grandchildren the barbarism of our not-so-distant past on these issues.

But I’d guess that our collective intentional blindness to destroying the planet will be pretty obscene and embarrassing. But this is all just speculation. I’d like to think that we’ll look back on our scientific ignorance in general, our food industry and treatment of animals, our continued racism, sexism, and xenophobia, and our acceptance of wealth inequality will be things we’ll hang our heads in shame about.

Torturing prisoners of war.
Isolationism, and the closing of our boarders.
Inequality in marriage rights.
The insanity of the current gun culture not allowing the government to restrict weapons to stop the all too common school shootings, and domestic violence.

I will be in a very small minority here, but I don’t care; here it is expected more than not.

When future generations look back they will see things that seem OK now than in the long run will prove disastrous will be:
• The erosion of marriage between one man and one woman.
• Gender reassignment surgeries.
• Cosmetic surgeries, boob jobs especially, Botox a close second.
• Not refitting all roadways and vehicles for ”Smart cars”.
• Accepting mediocrity over expecting excellence.
• Dr. Spockism of child rearing.
• Punishment in prisons over rehabilitation.
• Removing prayer from schools.
• Reproduction rights of fathers.
• The over reliance on pills and pharmaceuticals.

Cultural things that they of the future will look back on in a ”what were they thinking” way:
• Saggy baggy shorts on men.
• Face tattoos.
• Making excuses for overweightness and obesity over prompting people to exercise more.

Allowing them to be born! Really! With the world as screwed up as it is going to be (beyond what it is now), what else could they think? (I predict that mankind has less than 250 years left so the future of those generations isn’t too far off!)

For the past fifty years or so I have felt that the whole concept of “burning stuff out of the ground” to produce energy has got to be replaced by… something. It’s not going to be wind and solar (until battery technology improves a hundredfold over where it is now – which I also expect), but there is so much electricity produced naturally inside and outside the planet’s surface (think thunderstorms, for example – at any given minute on the planet’s surface there are approximately 1500 lightning strikes, and the planet itself is a revolving magnet, which produces an electrical field) that we can’t even imagine how to harness yet.

At some point in the future people will look at our technology for producing and distributing electricity and shake their heads in wonder.

I think future generations—and not even distant ones—will regret and feel shame for the actions and inactions of the current U.S. Congress (as well as some of the decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court), the ever-growing influence of money on politics, and the crumbling separation of Church and State.

@Darth_Algar only the rights to pets… the others were just thrown in for fun futuristic sci-fi. People can harm a pet and get away with it… in Alberta 3 years or so ago some teenagers microwaved a live cat and got off Scott free.

So many things. A problem future generations will still be experiencing is our inaction on climate change. We’re still bickering about whether it is our fault, if it’s happening and worrying about monetary profits that might be lost if we act. Our children, grandchildren, and their children will live with the consequences.

That U.S. citizens have allowed their politicians to divide and conquer us for their own benefit.

Debating liberal and conservative viewpoints is one thing. Allowing politicians to promote vitriol and hatred in order to keep us fighting each other, instead of closely monitoring the job performances of our elected officials, is disgraceful. We’ve been slowly but steadily relinquishing the power of our vote, and the politicians couldn’t be happier.

Sexualisation of children. Little girls dressed like teens, teaching them this warped gender role bullshit. I guess I’m just getting old, but I find that having someone like Miley Cyrus as a role model is extremely deplorable.

There are so many possibilities. I think one of the biggest will be our lack of insight and inaction for climate change. I think people will wonder what the heck was wrong with us. They may even wonder what snow was like…and how we survived in cold seasons.

Another big one would be all the chemicals we put into our food.

Our treatment of animals will be looked at as barbaric.

Our constant ignorance over poverty stricken countries.

Oil and gas will be looked at as a dirty primitive fuel source.

I think people will be puzzled that it took so long to allow same-sex marriage and same-sex adoptions (along with the acceptance of transgender people) on a global scale.

I think nations will look very different. Less borders and more unity.

All in all, people will learn that it takes a long time for humanity to change its foolish ways. We are still repeating so many of the same mistakes we’ve been making for centuries.